The STEM Higher Education Council features higher education’s role in increasing the emphasis on STEM pipeline-to-jobs and support of boundary-breaking collaborations between higher education and industry.

“I’ve been on the front lines of engineering innovation for the last 17 years, and it is clear there’s an education crisis in America,” says Conwell. “Our country is simply not educating enough scientists, engineers, and mathematicians, and our industry is suffering. I have an interest in being part of the solution for our industry and for our country’s place in the world.”

Conwell also started and helped lead a specialized business unit in Sverdrup to design and build test facilities, including wind, thermal and other environments, for the automotive industry. Sverdrup merged into Jacobs Engineering.

Conwell received bachelor and master of science degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Tennessee, and a doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from Vanderbilt University. He was an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Louisiana State University (1990-1993) and chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Grove City College (1993-1996).